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“Prepared to Care?” is a Carers Week Event hosted by Young Carers Revolution in partnership with the Parliamentary Outreach Service.

Carers of all ages and the organisations that support them are welcome at the event.

The event will feature round table discussions on themes of importance to attendees plus a panel debate chaired by Alex Cunningham MP who sits on the All Party Parliamentary Group for Carers.

Please join us for important discussions about how the UK’s carer population is coping with caring in 2013, and how effectively Government is supporting the growing numbers of carers.

The event will be held  on Friday, 14 June 2013 from 10:00 to 12:30 at City of York Council West Offices.   For more info and to register please click the button below!

Sami presents at the Carers Strategy Group

On Wednesday 17th April I was invited to attend the Carers Strategy meeting at the new City of York Council offices, which was interesting to look around.

The purpose of the meeting was to see how the Carers Strategy Group could influence the Health and Wellbeing board, in terms of having more influence over carers services. The issues faced by carers cuts right across the key themes of the Health and Wellbeing board, showing that support for carers is a necessary part of the board and must not be forgotten.

The Carers Charity Dinner By Cat

The young adult carers charity dinner was a formal event in which carers, raised awareness about the issues they faced. To do this they made speeches between the courses of a slap up 3 course meal. Also after the speeches and the meal there was a silent auction and a live performance from the band ‘Trace’. The night gave the guests a great perspective on the lives of young carers and provided a fun night for all. In my opinion the night was a great success and big thanks to the York Marriott Hotel for letting the young adult carers host the event in their great facilities.

During this great event Young Carers Revolution made a speech and presentation on the past, present and the future of the Young Carers Revolution Campaign. I talked about the past due to me being a part of this campaign pretty much from the beginning. Some younger members of the campaign talked about the present and future of our beloved campaign.

Cat

YCR Response to ‘Dream Again’ City of York Children & Young People’s Plan

The City of York Children & Young People’s Plan is called ‘Dream Again’. YCR members looked at the plan and discussed the five identified priorities for where extra work is needed.

The priorities are:

1. Helping all children and young people enjoy a happy family life
2. Supporting those who need extra help at the earliest opportunity
3. Promoting good mental health
4. Reaching further: links to a strong economy
5. Planning well in a changing world

Previously the group had discussed these priorities and created a piece of artwork to represent their views. YCR member Imy spent some time photographing the artwork using a Canon 5D mk2 fitted with a 100mm Macro Lense. The photographs would be used to make a short film using recorded audio from the artwork session. Imy worked with Inspired Youth Arts to process the media files and then lay them into a video edit using Final Cut Pro. Here is the finished piece – we think its very good for Imy’s first ever film edit!!!

YCR meet the Clinical Commissioning Group

YCR were delighted to be invited to meet with Fliss Wood from the Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). The meeting had been set up after Liz Langwade from York Carers Centre had met Fliss at the CCG public forum. Jamiee, Sami, Steph and Cat were chosen to represent the group at the meeting. The group talked through their previous work and presented their responses to the Children and Young People’s Plan. Then it was over to Fliss to ask some questions which could help her work at the CCG. Her questions were mainly around how the CCG could help young carers more. The themes of discussion focussed on the difficulties young carers have with getting prescriptions, lack of communication between health professionals and how that can impact on complex home situations and also how health and wellbeing services could work with schools more effectively. It was a good discussion which will hopefully lead to more. Well done to all!

The Children & Young People’s Plan

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YCR were in action again this month at the Inspired Youth offices at YSJ Phoenix Centre.   The group came together to look at progress that had been made since the last session.   They learned that their work on a response to the Carers Support Bill had been taken forward by Liz Langwade (Senior Young Carers Worker at York Carers Centre) and that she’d also met with Sian Balsom from York CVS to talk about the group’s ideas for speaking to the Clinical Commissioning Group. They heard that their ideas in response to the city’s Health & Wellbeing Strategy had been taken on by Frances Perry (Carers & Strategic Policy Manager at City of York Council). Finally they heard that the idea for a regional event involving Carers and MPs had been taken on by the Parliamentary Outreach Service! Also YCR Founder Member & IY Ambassador Sami presented her plans for a fundraising event for young adult carers after Christmas. Sami asked YCR to present some of their work on the night which got an enthusiastic response!

Then it was on to today’s task. In previous weeks YCR members had contributed to the Children & Young People’s Plan “Dream Again”. The plan was to take the 5 priorities listed in the plan for further work and come up with a creative response from the perspective of young carers. The group worked on a banner mural detailing their thoughts. They then recorded some statements relating to the themes using a Roland R26 Audio Recorder. Meanwhile, photographs were being taken of the artwork using a Canon 5D MkII. The plan is to combine the two into a short digital presentation.

Finally we invited Paul Murphy, the person who was responsible for writing the Children & Young People’s plan, to meet the group and see their emerging work. Watch this space for the final piece.

YCR …and a Ball of String

YCR were in full effect this week with members coming together to talk about a number of opportunities that are on the horizon. The group members, aged between 9 and 21, met at Inspired Youth’s Offices at York St John Uni. There were four tasks to discuss.

• Discuss and Plan a Regional Event with the Parliamentary Outreach Service
• Contribute views to the City of York Health & Well Being Strategy
• Discuss ways to influence the Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group
• Discuss the impact of the Carers Support Bill

The discussions covered a range of organisations that are involved in young carers lives. In order to fully understand the roles and responsibilities of these organisations we used a ball of string and told a story (based on real situations) that illustrated how all these organisations are linked whilst the young carer is in the middle. Each time an organisation had an influence in the story the ball of string was passed to them, quickly turning the room into a web! Being able to help these organisations do their job by discussing priorities for young carers was an important part of the session.

YCR at the Inside Parliament Workshop

YCR member Aidan with Daniel Wood from the Houses of Parliament Outreach Service and Ed Poulter from Involve Yorkshire & Humber.

The session was really useful and showed us how we can have an influence on issues by engaging with MPs, Lords and Select Committees at Parliament.   Aidan said about the event “Inside Parliament explained the many ways in which small groups can really get their foot in the door with the help of MPs, a really informative day!”.

YCR Support Launch of Carers Card

YCR hits the headlines in the local press once more following their presentation at the launch of the Young Carers Card. Well done to the presentation team you did YCR proud!

Picture courtesy of the York & District Advertiser, you can see the full article here:

York Young Carers Card Launched

YCR Present to Headteachers Conference in York

Aidan, Imogen and Emma receive applause from an audience of Headteachers after their informative and challenging presentation! Watch this space for the feedback.

Sophee meets MP Julian Sturdy

Conservative MP Julian Sturdy follows up his debate on Young Carers issues with a day shadowing Carers Centre staff.   He even dropped in to meet YCR founder member Sophee at her home.

You can see Julian Sturdy’s comments here : Julian Sturdy BLOG

 

Sami Represents YCR at Number 10 Downing Street!

Well done Sami for representing YCR at a reception with the Prime Minister at Number 10 Downing Street!   Click the logo to see the fantastic story in the press!

YCR Welcome Event

Young Carers Revolution began the next stages of their plan for world domination; by inviting new young carers to join the campaign. The crew planned a media training day to help inform the new members of how to deal with media attention. The Aims of the day were as follows:
-      Welcoming New Members and establishing the Contract of Respect 2011
-      Review YCR media campaign and key messages
-      Take part in media training
-      Begin two new projects

The day was hosted by CJ and Sami, who helped to organise activities to warm up the group, one of the activities was to draw the person opposite you without taking your eyes off their face… the results are below! The media training was provided with the help of a special guest in the form of Claire Morrow – Former Controller of Programming for ITV Yorkshire!

And of course in typical YCR fashion plenty of fun and laughter was had during the way.
Thank you to all that came, Hope to see you next time.   Sami

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Representing as Regional Winners at the Vinspired Awards at O2!!!

Young Carers Revolution at the O2

YCR Members Ash, Seb, Amie, Sami, Natatsha and Aidan outside the O2 Arena where they were invited along with many other inspirational young people to represent as Regional V-Award Winners!

Support from Author of Caitlin’s Wish

We’ve had a great comment from the Author of Caitlin’s Wish!   Check it out here along with a petition asking for schools to support young carers further.

CLICK THIS LINK

YCR discussed in Parliamentary Debate!

Thanks to Julian Sturdy MP, the YCR message was loud and clear in Parliament yesterday.

See his full speech here : Julian Sturdy YCR Parliamentary Debate

YCR generating debate in Parliament!

Tomorrow in Parliament, MP Julian Sturdy will lead a debate on young carers issues.   After meeting young carers in York in October, he has seen the Young Carers Revolution film and will be promoting the DVD! Another success for an inspired group of young carers! The YCR mash-up continues!

Welcome to our new home!

This BLOG is now the new home of the Young Carers Revolution Campaign!   Here we will keep you up to date with all of our latest news and projects!

Thankyou for following us so far, you can still go back and look through the YCR Story and see how we got to where we are today.   We think this new BLOG is a better way of directing people easily to the campaign materials without having to scroll through masses of posts.   We look forward to your comments and feedback!

Peace

CJ :: Inspired Youth